Police use stun gun to stop naked man

Wheaton police used a stun gun Tuesday to subdue a man running naked and disturbing residents in a neighborhood, police said.

The man, 20, from Wheaton, is accused of damaging property at two or three homes in the neighborhood in the 1400 block of East Elm Street, police said. He ran naked from police after they arrived at the scene a little after 3 p.m., said Wheaton Deputy Police Chief Tom Meloni.

“When the officers got there, they see him running and he has no clothing on and he’s incoherent,” Meloni said. “He wasn’t communicating with the officers and he would not stop.”

Officers used a stun gun to subdue the man and arrest him, Meloni said. He was taken to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield and admitted. Meloni declined to release the man’s identity because he said the man may still be in the hospital and his arrest has not yet been processed. The incident is still under investigation and charges have not been filed, Meloni said.

A resident of the neighborhood, Leonard Catalano, said he saw the naked man running and yelling and knocking on doors in the neighborhood. He said the man is lucky he didn’t get hurt considering the way he was running haphazardly into a busy street.

Catalano said the neighborhood at Elm Street near Blanchard Street near the city’s downtown is normally quiet, and the incident drew many neighbors out of their homes to see the commotion.

“He just wasn’t looking at all,” Catalano said. “You could tell there was certainly a mental problem there.”